[ti:Nicknames for New York City] [ar:Barbara Klein] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Now, the VOA [00:13.12]Special English program, [00:15.22]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:19.41]A nickname is a shortened [00:22.55]form of a person's name. [00:24.86]A nickname also can be [00:27.05]a descriptive name [00:28.49]for a person, place or thing. [00:31.82]Many American cities [00:34.07]have nicknames. [00:35.41]These can help [00:37.31]establish an identity, [00:38.95]spread pride among [00:40.84]citizens and build unity. [00:43.63]A few years ago, [00:45.67]some marketing [00:46.97]and advertising experts [00:49.07]were asked to name [00:50.81]the best nickname [00:52.39]for an American city. [00:54.44]The winner was the nation's [00:56.60]largest city, New York. [00:59.50]The top nickname [01:00.95]was The Big Apple. [01:03.79]You might wonder how [01:05.85]New York got this nickname. [01:08.14]In the early nineteen seventies, [01:11.38]the city had many problems. [01:13.92]The number of visitors [01:15.86]was falling.So a campaign [01:19.26]was launched to give [01:20.71]the city a new image. [01:22.86]The head of the New York [01:25.26]Conventions and Visitors Bureau [01:28.00]decided to call the city, [01:30.09]The Big Apple. [01:32.33]There are several explanations [01:35.17]for where this name came from. [01:39.62]Language expert Barry Popik [01:42.65]studied the question and wrote [01:44.84]about it on his Web site. [01:47.09]He says John Fitz Gerald, [01:50.27]a writer for a New York newspaper, [01:53.11]used the name the Big Apple [01:56.10]to mean New York [01:58.24]in the nineteen twenties. [02:00.18]Mister Fitz Gerald wrote [02:02.74]about horse races. [02:04.33]He heard the name used [02:07.02]by men who worked [02:08.81]at a racetrack [02:10.10]in New Orleans, Louisiana. [02:12.92]Mister Fitz Gerald wrote: [02:16.20]"The Big Apple. [02:17.26]The dream of every lad [02:19.76]that ever threw a leg [02:21.61]over a thoroughbred [02:23.10]and the goal of all horsemen. [02:26.04]There's only one Big Apple. [02:29.32]That's New York." [02:32.06]In horse racing, [02:33.90]the expression meant [02:35.69]"the big time," [02:37.38]the place where large amounts [02:39.94]of money could be won. [02:41.90]The Big Apple became the name [02:44.86]of a night club [02:46.35]in the Harlem area of New York City [02:49.68]in nineteen thirty-four. [02:51.96]It also was the name [02:54.12]of a popular dance [02:55.77]and a hit song [02:57.36]in the nineteen thirties. [02:59.69]But it is not the only nickname [03:03.14]for America's largest city. [03:06.08]Barry Popik's web site [03:08.07]lists almost one hundred nicknames [03:11.25]that describe New York. [03:13.65]The best known are the Capital [03:16.81]of the World. Empire City. [03:19.89]Gotham. The City So Nice [03:23.30]They Named it Twice. [03:25.08]And the City That Never Sleeps. [03:28.92]You can hear about the city [03:31.81]in the song, "New York, New York" [03:34.84]by Frank Sinatra. [03:36.88](MUSIC) [04:29.77]This program was written [04:31.76]by Shelley Gollust. [04:33.56]I'm Barbara Klein. [04:35.05]You can find more [04:36.79]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES [04:38.53]at 51voa.com.